52F Models

Speialising in producing etched 4mm scale loco kits for NER and NBR modellers as well as the Easi-Rider range of 4mm scale model loco and tender chassis'. Designed and Produced in the UK for the discerning modeller.

We now have a very limited supply of Mashima 1420 motors but we are reserving these for customers who order one with one of our kits. Please note that due to an adverse exchange rate with the pound against the yen, the prices of all Mashima motors has increasedby £2.00- £2.50. Please get a firm price befofe you place an order.

We can supply Gibson wheel sets for all our loco and chassis kits. Most wheels are available in OO-EM or 18.83 gauge. Sets for NBR loco kits usually have to have the crank-pin throw altered and we charge an additional £1.25 per driving wheel for this service. If a wheel set is ordered with one of our kits then it will be supplied carriage free. If you place an order for an unmodified wheel set, we can despatch these in a padded bag. Please add £2.00 for postage. For modified wheel sets these need to be sent in a small box and will cost an additional £3.00 postage. See the "Gibson Wheels" tab for full details.

My recovery seems to have reached a plateau. I seem to be putting a great deal of effort into my daily exercise regime only to find that I'm getting very little in the way of improvement in my overall condition. Very frustrating. I thought I'd be well on the way to recovery by now. This is all the more frustrating because I had two projects that were very near to completion.

They were the A8 tank engine and the D30 Scott. The 4,235g tender has been redesigned several times and sucessfuly 3D modelled on each occasion. I've finally settled for cast coping and etched coal rails, the location for the coal rails being cast into the coping. It'll be much easier for the average modeller to assemble.

The demise of Mashima motors has caused me no end of problems and will result in every chassis and kit having to have to have the gearboxes redesigned to accomodate motors that are readily available. Not too much of a problem with large tank engines but it will create lots of problems with small tender engines.

Breaking news! LNER/BR class A8 4-6-2T

Click on the A8 Loco kit tab for a full specification of this kit.

Latest:- The masters for the A8 lost wax brass castings are nearing completion and we hope to have them sent to the casting company by the end of the month.

This class of 45 engines were designed by Vincent Raven as class H1 4-4-4T engines but with an all up weight of 87tons and less than half of that available as adhesive weight the class was never considered a success. H.N. Gresley rebuilt the class by adding another set of driving wheels and replacing the rear bogie with a radial truck to produce a 4-6-2T arrangement. The class gained an additional 13 tons adhesive weight and lost half a ton in overall weight. The prototype put in some remarkable performances thus prompting the rebuilding of the whole class.

These are the first phots of the partially completed "Test Build" body. This shot shows the driver's side of the loco with the folding cab doors in the closed position. The boiler fitted is the diagram 63B with the dome placed 1'-9" nearer the firebox. Diagram 63A / 63C boiler will be supplied with the kit. The beading has yet to be fitted to the cab opening. This will be a pre-formed part and will allow the door opening handrails to be fitted prototypically.

This shot of the fireman's side of the loco shows the cab doors in the open position. The coal cage and the hopper top were fitted to the bunker to check that the parts fitted correctly. The normal coal rails are provided with the kit so a choice of three bunker configurations is possible.There are two bunker end plates included in the kit. The later type has two footsteps and is the one we've fitted to the test build model, the early type has only one footstep.

The development phase has taken a lot longer than we would have expected because try as we might we could'nt produce a kit to cover all variants of the kit without producing 3 boilers and the necessary additional parts that are needed to accompany them. Instead we have settled for including two boilers to cover engines that carried diagram 63A, 63C and 63B boilers. All the class but one carried diagram 63B boilers at withdrawal and the only example that didn't have a diagram 63B boiler when withdrawn carried a 63B boiler for two years in the 1950's

The etchings are produced in 0.38mm nickel silver to make assembly and soldering a lot easier. The fully detailed cab has folding doors that aren't too dificult to produce. The 3D diagrams and assembly instructions will be a true record of how we built the model that will appear on this website in due course.

We expect the price of both the EM/P4 and OO gauge kits to be £150.00 including postage. If you're interested in owning one of these kits then please express your interest from the "Contact us" page on this website or by telephone on 01670 362451.

We have a supply of 8'-0" - 8'-6" coupling rod etches for inside cylinder 0-6-0 tank or tender locomotives. These fit the LNER-BR classes J21, J25, J26 and J27 as well as the classes N8, N9 and N10 0-6-2T tank engines. They are etched in 0.38mm (0.015") nickel silver, are. two piece and double thickness as well as being tabbed together for ease of assembly. They pivot around the centre crankpin and are simplicity itself to assemble and fit. These coupling rods were designed to fit Alexander Models and Nu-Cast kit built locos but would fit any kit built loco with the aforementioned wheel spacing.These rods cost £4.00 per fret post free.

Latest NBR news.

W.P. Reid designed Class D30 4-4-0 loco and tender kit.

The masters for the lost wax castings are with our casting supplier. We hope to have some samples from these masters within two weeks. All the castings that would have been white metal items will now be supplied as lost wax brass items. That was the plan, it looks like the castings are going to ne a mixture of white metal and lost wax brass.

The lost wax castings for the NBR tender initially looked very nice. On assembly shrinkage proved to be a greater problem than anticipated. I am having to remake one of the masters to compensate for the accumulated shrinkage. Two pieces need to be 1.2mm longer.

There will be a choice of lost wax NBR springs and axleboxes or LNER springs and axleboxes. You will need to specify which which item you require when you order the kit. These lost wax brass castings aren't cheap so it's an either or situation in order to keep the cost down.

All the slight errors that we found with the pre-production build have been corrected and we aren't expecting any unpleasant suprises with the first production etch. The chassis has the prototypical double frames around the bogie area and this means that the chassis is articulated. The bogie has 5° deflection either side of the chassis centreline built into the unit and well as 5° rotation around the pivot. This method enables the bogie to function more than adequately while maintaining the "no daylight" around the bogie wheels and the frames.

By making the prototypical bogie, bogie pivot assembly and front frames as a unit, this allows the bogie to be load bearing as well as compensated. We will be including the Reid early bogie with leaf spring compensation as well as the Chalmers bogie with lost wax castings to represent the individual coil springs. the compensation beams will be on the inside of the bogie and won't be visible from the side.

We are incuding both types of brake arrangement. The Westinghouse clasp brakes, centrally operated and the later steam braked conversion.

The loco footplate and boiler are available from an earlier etch and we have built the boiler and smokebox assembly. We have 3D modelled the boiler and smokebox assemblies and developed the etched shapes from that so we were pleased that these pieces actually fitted together perfectly. With a lot of "Daylight" under the front of the boiler, quite a lot of the Stephenson's, inside admission valve gear and motion brackets were visible between the frames. We are confident that we can successfully model these features. See "Prototypes Page" for photos of the boiler and smokebox.

We have the first pre-production etches for the Reid 4,235g tender first built in 1909 available. The tender is unusual in that the axle boxes fitted to the outer frames actually carry the tender's wheels and move vertically in the horn-blocks. This means that the wheels and axle-boxes can be fitted prototypically. Movement is controlled by compensation beams mounted on a sub chassis inside the outer frames. At the moment we are considering the best way of producing the special horn-blocks in quantity. We could have them machined by a trade supplier but this tends to be expensive due to having to order them by the thousand. We could have them produced as lost wax castings but again this will be expensive due to the amount that can be cast at one time and whether they would need to be finish machined afterwards anyway. If mould slippage isn't a problem then the white metal casting route may be the most commercially viable solution and has the added advantage of being a better bearing material than either machined or lost wax cast brass.

We have a limited supply of NER and LNER loco footsteps etched in 0.25mm Nickel silver. There are enough steps for on each fret for 1, Q6 1, G5, 1 J27, and 1J25 or J21 loco. The frets are piced at £3.00 each + £1.00 P&P. When ordered with one of our loco chassis or loco kits, carriage is post free.

Etched screw-link couplings for NER & LNER vacuum braked engines.

Each fret contains one pair of screw-link couplings (front and rear) as seen in the photo below. They are now on sale now at £1.50 per fret. These couplings aren't supplied with springs, you'll need to source your own springs. If ordering by post then a minimum order of five frets applies.

For small orders under £25.00 in value there is an additional charge of £1.00 if the items can be sent in a padded bag. A handling charge of £3.00 applies to orders that have to be sent in any kind of box. An example would be a Modified Gibson wheel set for the class C15 and C16 kits that weren't ordered with the appropriate kit. Chassis kits over £50.00 in value will now be sent by 2nd class, post free.